No other city in the world stirs the imagination quite like Venice. For over six centuries, this tiny republic set down in a muddy 1)lagoon at the head of the Adriatic Sea, was a global super power. Comprising some 100 low lying islands linked together by a 2)labyrinthine network of canals, Venice stands today untouched by time like some magical kingdom on the water.
再没有一座城市能像威尼斯一样如此引人遐想。超过六个世纪的时间过去了，这个小小的共和国就坐落在亚得里亚海出海口一个浑浊的泻湖上，却在全球叱咤风云。威尼斯由大约一百个低洼岛屿组成，被错综复杂的运河网络串联起来。然而岁月并未在威尼斯留下痕迹，时至今日，它依然是个水上魔幻王国。
The origins of Venice go back to the breakup of the Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Hoping to escape successive waves of hostile 3)barbarian invaders sweeping down from the north, villages and townspeople from the mainland sought refuge on the islands of the Venetian Lagoon. The move to the lagoon was 4)fortuitous, and in time, the settlement began to grow in size and stature. With no 5)hinterland and surrounded on all sides by water, there was very little that these early Venetians could do but to take to the sea. By the ninth century, Venetian merchant adventures had established themselves as major players in a 6)lucrative trade between East and West. And Venice, now a flourishing city, had taken on a shape and form that has little changed until today.
威尼斯的历史应该可以追溯至罗马帝国衰亡，也就是公元五、六世纪的时候。为了躲避来自北方一浪接一浪凶狠野蛮人的入侵，内陆村镇的居民唯有迁到威尼斯泻湖的岛屿避难。迁居泻湖其实只是个偶然，但随着时间的推移，定居者们的社群壮大，地位日隆。这里不与内陆相接，又四面环水，所以早期的威尼斯人只能向海外寻求发展。到了九世纪，威尼斯商人们已在东西方的繁荣贸易中为自己闯出了一片天。而威尼斯现在也是一片繁华，只是形貌至今都没什么改变。
The undisputed heart of Venice has always been St. Mark’s Square. Since the earliest days, this has been the city’s principal gathering place, where festivals were held and official ceremonies, including public executions, took place. Today, it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city.
毫无争议的是，圣马可广场一直都是威尼斯的中心地带。一开始，这里就是全市的主要聚集场所，节日庆典、官方仪式，包括处决都在这里举行。如今，这里更是威尼斯数一数二的旅游名胜。
The Venetians knew the key to their success was their naval power. So they 7)embarked on a project of 8)colossal scale that would enable them to expand their ship-building capacity. The result was the largest industrial complex of the mediaeval era, The Arsenal of Venice. By the mid 14th century, the Arsenal covered some 110 acres, representing over 15% of the entire city area. Here, hidden behind fortified walls, the republic built and maintained its 9)galleons, the ships that made up its navy and much of its commercial fleet. At its height, The Arsenal employed 16,000 workers and could turn out one galley a day. This was construction on an industrial scale and indeed it wouldn’t be matched again in Europe until the advent of the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 18th century.
威尼斯人知道他们成功的关键在于海军实力。为了扩充自己的造船能力，他们开展了规模庞大的建设计划。由此诞生了中世纪最大型的工业建筑——威尼斯的阿森纳造船厂。到了14世纪中期，阿森纳造船厂占地110英亩，占全市面积的15%。在这高墙壁垒之内，威尼斯共和国在这里建造并维修自己的大型帆船，这些船供威尼斯海军和大部分商队使用。发展最鼎盛的时候，阿森纳造船厂员工达到一万六千人，并且可以在一日内造出一艘大型帆船，船厂以工业化规模生产，在欧洲冠绝一时，直到18世纪末期发生工业革命才被赶超。
The Rialto Market, centrally located along the eastern bank of the Grand Canal, sells some of the freshest fruit, vegetables and fish in the city. But for centuries, it was the 10)epicenter of Venetian commercial life. Merchant ships returning from the markets of the east, laden with silks, spices and other exotic commodities, would dock here to unload and dispose of their precious 11)cargoes.
里阿尔托市场位于大运河东岸的中心地带，出售新鲜果蔬与海鲜。几百年来这里都是威尼斯商贸活动的中心。由东方商市回来的商船，满载丝绸、香料和其他舶来商品，会停靠在这儿，卸下珍贵的货物并出售。
Colonization of the Americas and the success of trade routes to the East that 12)circumnavigated Africa all challenged Venetian commercial supremacy. The republic was fast becoming an irrelevant 13)anachronism. The decline of Venice reached its lowest point in 1796 when the city surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte. The Venetian Republic was no more.
美洲的殖民化，再加上绕行非洲的东方海上商道的开通，都在挑战威尼斯的商贸霸主地位。威尼斯共和国很快与时代脱节，实力旁落。该市在1796年向拿破仑·波拿巴投降，至此，威尼斯的衰落跌至谷底。威尼斯共和国就此灭亡。
Sitting here in Sr. Mark’s Square, once famously described by Napoleon as the “finest drawing room in Europe,” one is surrounded on all sides by evidence of Venice’s past glory. And for me at least, modern day Venice is always pervaded by a slight sense of melancholy, a sense of faded splendor, of irredeemable loss. A city that grew fabulously wealthy on its trade with the East, jealously defended by a formidable navy, now has to rely on a new kind of import: the foreign tourist. For all I know, they brings as much revenues as silks and spices ever did.
坐在曾被拿破仑形容为“欧洲最华美客厅”的圣马可广场，四处可见威尼斯往昔辉煌的痕迹。至少在我眼中，现在的威尼斯总是弥漫着一种淡淡的哀愁，光华褪色的怅然和无力挽回的失落。这个当初凭借着与东方通商而富甲天下的城市，曾经拥有强大的海军严密防卫，而现在却要依赖新的引进品营生：游客。就我所知道的，他们带来的收益未必逊于过去的丝绸和香料。
Venice is a city that can not change, must not change, if it is not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. The golden egg, of course, being the lucrative tourist trade. But this is not to suggest that Venice is some 14)stagnant backwater out of touch with modern times. With typical Venetian 15)pragmatism, the city has cashed in on its architectural legacy and rich artistic past to reinvent itself as a contemporary capital of the arts. Venice is not a living museum, nor are its citizens 16)superannuated fossils. Rather, they are modern Italians living modern Italian lives. They just happen to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And who in their right mind is gonna change that?
威尼斯是个不能改变的城市，一定不要改变，否则就是杀死下金蛋的鹅。金蛋当然是指收益丰厚的旅游业。但这并不代表威尼斯是一潭死水，与时代完全脱节。带着威尼斯人典型的务实作风，这个城市懂得善于利用自己的建筑遗产和厚实的艺术根基，让自己变身为当代艺术都会。威尼斯并不是一座活人博物馆，威尼斯的居民也不是活化石。他们是现代意大利人，过的是现代意大利人的生活，只不过他们碰巧生活在这个世界上最美丽的城市之一里。如此美事，哪个脑筋正常的人想去改变？